She Gave Birth Alone but Moments Later the Doctor Saw Something That Made Him Break Down

where grief had already been for some time.

“How long ago did he leave?”

“Seven months.”

He absorbed this. He looked at the baby for a moment.

“Then he’s been gone,” he said slowly, “almost exactly as long as his mother has been gone.”

He told his story carefully, not all at once. The nurses came and went with the measured efficiency of a maternity ward continue reading …